New Yosemite Line by Nico Favresse: Eye of Sauron

by Natalie Berry - UKC 28/Nov/2017This news story has been read 8,798 times

Belgian climber and member of the notorious 'Wild Bunch', Nicolas Favresse, has established a seriously steep and hard new trad line in Yosemite Valley's Ribbon Falls alongside Alix Morris and Drew Smith. The 400m line has been named Eye of Sauron and features difficulties up to 7c+/8a, breaching a huge roof to the left of Gates of Delirium.

The team used no bolts on the route, opting instead to use equalised nuts for the abseil points. Commenting on Instagram, Nico described the crux as follows: 'Its crux is one of the most unreal things I have ever climbed, with 3D climbing straight through a massive roof!' During his trip, Nico also managed a free ascent of the 35 pitch El Corazon 5.13b alongside Siebe Vanhee, swinging leads and completing the route in four days.

Nico is no stranger to new-routing in the storied Yosemite Valley. In 2005, he established L'A ppât 5.13a to the right of the Ribbon Falls and added The Secret Passage 5.13c to El Capitan in 2008 (UKC News report), both with Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll. In 2006 Nico established Lost in Translation 5.12b/c, 400m in ground-up style in a single 27 hour push alongside Ivo Ninov, becoming the first team to make a first ascent in ground-up, alpine style on El Capitan.

8a trad makes it E8 though. There's not that many folk up for multipitch E8, even amongst the elite. It may have cracks but I'm willing to bet it's still no bolted route. Hope they filmed the ascent/process!MischaHY - 29 Nov 2017